Bravettes finish strong in loss to Helena High
<p>Flathead's Johanna Lembke is hammered by Helena High's Jenna Starke during the second quarter of Friday’s Western AA girls basketball game at Flathead High School. (Aaric Bryan/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
By SAM CAMPBELL
The Daily Inter Lake
Trailing by 27 points late in the final quarter on their home floor, the Flathead Bravettes didn’t seem to care about the inevitable conference basketball loss to Helena High on Friday night.
Instead, they kept shooting.
With just over four minutes to play in the contest, Flathead went on an 11-2 run, nailing three 3-pointers in the process and forcing the Bengals to call a timeout to regroup.
It wasn’t enough to win the game — which the Bengals took 57-34 — but the Bravettes refrained from rolling over and going through the motions, deciding to finish a sloppy game with some pride.
“I’m totally proud of the effort. It’s a 19 point game, but if you look at it, we had that quarter where we just scored four points. We can’t play with good teams by only scoring four,” Bravettes head coach Lisa Hendrickson said.
“I think our defensive effort was great, but they took advantage of us underneath and it really hurt us today. (Helena) is a great team. They’re well coached and were ready to play. We just didn’t make enough buckets to keep up with them.”
Helena (7-10 overall, 3-6 Western AA) had 11 players score in the matchup with the team-high coming from Shanna Floerchinger’s 13 points.
Helena shot 19 free throws to Flathead’s six.
The pivotal third quarter saw Helena outscore the Bravettes 15-4 to all but put the game out of reach.
Returning from appendicitis, sophomore Tiana Johnson led all scorers with 18 points, including two from behind the arc during Flathead’s late run. She also pulled in a team-high seven rebounds.
“She was out for a while with an illness. I think it lit her fire, being back. It’s hard to just sit and watch the team,” Hendrickson said. “She’s definitely coming out, playing hard and doing a lot of stuff for us. I think the team is responding well to her and I’m happy that she’s feeling that.”
Senior Jessica Simmons had four assists and two steals for the Bravettes (2-15, 0-9).
Flathead won’t have much time to dwell on the loss as it takes on top-ranked Helena Capital today at 2:30 p.m.
“What’s nice about having a short turnaround is you can’t think about it very long. You’re right on the floor again. It’s senior night, so were just going to play hard.” Hendrickson said.
Helena High 17 12 15 13 — 57
Flathead 9 8 4 13 — 34
HELENA — Patricia Martin 1 0-0 2, Jenna Starke 4 2-2 10, Kendra Kloker 1 1-2 3, Hailey Crawford 1 0-0 3, Paityn Floerchinger 3 1-2 8, Alyssa Ferguson 2 2-2 6, Kamden Hilborn 1 1-2 3, Shanna Floerchinger 6 1-3 13, Taelyr Krantz 2 1-2 5, Kindra Dunlop 1 0-0 2, Sam Holman 0 2-4 2. Totals — 22 11-19 57.
FLATHEAD — Kylee Meredith 1 0-0 2, Stephanie Wilson 2 0-0 4, Johanna Lembke 0 0-2 0, Tiana Johnson 8 0-0 18, Jessica Simmons 0 1-2 1, Taryn Gutierez 2 0-2 4, Kelsey Gillespie 2 0-0 5. Totals — 15 1-6 34.
3-point goals — Helena 2 (Crawford, P. Floerchinger), Flathead 3 (Johnson 2, Gillespie). Rebounds — Helena 32 (Krantz 7, S. Floerchinger 6), Flathead 21 (Johnson 7, Gutierez 4). Assists — Helena 11 (Ferguson 3), Flathead 9 (Simmons 4). Steals — Helena 12 (S. Floerchinger 3, Krantz 3), Flathead 6 (Simmons 2), Turnovers — Helena 8, Flathead 17. Total fouls — Helena 9 Flathead 17. Fouled out — None.